GENOA – Students in Stacey Depner’s fourth- and fifth-grade music classes at Genoa Elementary School have been enjoying a music program where they “bring your own device.”

The kids have been learning how to use technology to further their music studies on their own this summer.

At the beginning of class, students pull out their own iPads, iPhones, iPods, Kindles and other tablets. Kids that don’t have one with them are assigned to school equipment, including iPads, iPods and computers. They then work singly or in pairs to learn about music through a variety of music apps.

Depner integrated the program into her classes after seeing other Genoa teachers use it successfully with other subjects. She thought it would be an effective way to encourage the kids to continue their music studies over the summer.

“I believe they’ll use the apps this summer,” Depner said. “My hope is that when they get bored, they’ll pull them up and get ready for band in fifth grade or for other music lessons in general.”

Depner wasn’t only concerned about summer music studies when she introduced BYOD in the classroom. She also used the program to help the students do their best on end-of-year state achievement tests.

“When students are actively engaged in music, it increases brain function,” she said.

Depner said music is particularly effective in improving math skills.

“Actively being engaged in music fine tunes brain function in math, especially when you listen to Mozart or Haydn,” she said. “There’s something about that music — it’s the same brain timing as math.”

Music, in general, is beneficial to children. Depner said it gives children a release outside of the classroom and boosts their self-confidence.

“It gives them experience in front of groups for the future,” she said. “If they one day have to give a speech at a meeting, it won’t be such a big deal if they’ve played piano in front of 500 people before.”

Another benefit is that music is a lifelong skill.

“An 80-year-old won’t be on the football field playing football, but they’ll be in a band playing an instrument,” Depner said.

As Depner has integrated the BYOD program into her classrooms, she has realized the students are very resourceful about finding new apps.

“The kids are very technologically savvy,” she said. “They found more apps than I did. We shared with each other and had a lot of fun with it.

“They were very engaged while in the classroom and were very excited about coming to class. We found some really cool apps we could use for future lessons.”

During a class in March, the kids spread out in pairs across the music room and used different apps to study music. Derrick Gilbert and Logan Lake chose the Magic Piano app.

“I like it because you can pick out what kinds of different functions you want to use,” Gilbert said.

Kayla Garcia and Madison Smith were using an app called Smule.

“My favorite app is Smule. I play piano, and it’s just like a piano. I love piano,” Smith said.

“It teaches how the notes work. It’s a learning game. I play Smule a lot at my house, too, and I’ll use it this summer.”